


The Night Belongs

by DarknessAroundUs



Series: The Bruce Trilogy [1]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Detective Betty Cooper, F/M, Grimm - Freeform, Grimm Betty, Portland Oregon, Southside Serpent Jughead Jones, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 00:25:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17233967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarknessAroundUs/pseuds/DarknessAroundUs
Summary: His father is missing. Jughead turns to an unlikely ally for help.A supernatural AU.





	The Night Belongs

**Author's Note:**

> So this story is yet another supernatural AU. This time the prime influence is the TV show Grimm, but i'm just borrowing from their universe (per usual). All of the plot is mine, and all of the characters are Riverdales.
> 
> There is no reason you would have to be familiar with Grimm to follow this.

Knock, knock, knock, knock. 

The sound of someone pounding on a door is part of Betty’s dream world of giant sunflowers and hollow clocks, till she opens her eyes to her dark bedroom and realizes that someone in the waking world is knocking on the door of her bungalow. She checks the bedside clock and discovers that it is 4 AM.

Betty pulls a hoodie on over her Portland Police Department t-shirt before slipping a knife into the generous pocket the hoodie provides. Only then does she descend the stairs. The knocking has continued the whole time. Whoever it is, is persistent.

Betty has grown accustomed to late night visitors over the years. It comes with the territory of the job she is paid for and the one she isn’t.

She looks through the peephole. She doesn’t know him, but he looks vaguely familiar. He’s tall with black wavy hair, olive skin, blue eyes, and leather jacket. That doesn’t tell her much. But the fact that he’s knocking at all tells her something. The most undesirable visitors just enter.

She opens the door “Hello.” It is better to say too little than too much.

When their eyes meet she sees the flash of who he really is - big teeth, a larger forehead, and greenish skin. In other words a classic blutbad, or in layman’s terms a werewolf.

She knows in that moment he can see who she really is too. He will see her pupils go darker than the darkest black. That is fine. If he’s knocking at this hour, he already knows she’s a Grimm, bred for generations and trained for years to hunt creatures, or Wesen, as they like to call themselves.

Still the way she looks, the Grimm in her, startles him a little and he steps back.

“I’ve just never met one of your kind before.” He says by way of explanation. Betty gets that reaction all the time. There are hundreds of different kinds of Wesen in Portland and only two Grimms.

“I can’t say the same about Blutbad.” Betty gives a tight smile.”I’m Betty Smith.”

“I’m Jughead Jones.” So he is FP’s son. She can’t help but feel some warmth towards him for that. Even if he is waking her up when she would much rather be sleeping.

“In that case you can come in.” Betty steps out of the doorway and Jughead hesitates, takes a deep breath, squares his shoulders, and then walks through her door. He’s taller than his father, and his scent is a lot fresher, less cigarette smoke, more wood smoke, but he has the same posture.

Betty leads Jughead through the house into the kitchen. She switches on the light. The odds are low that she’ll be able to go back to sleep. Her shift starts at 7 AM tomorrow. She might as well make coffee.

She puts a kettle on and starts to ready the french press. “Do you want coffee?”

“Sure.” He looks uncomfortable. He is still standing, or rather leaning against one of the kitchen counters. He seemed to be taking in the space, though there wasn’t much to take in. The kitchen was painted yellow, and most of the appliances were cherry red. It was small, with a table for two in the middle.

FP jokingly calls the table her desk and the kitchen her office. Betty has worked with a number of Wesen over the years, it was part of what set her apart from the other Grimms. But in the decade that she’d been Portland’s lead Grimm, FP was the only one that she’d gotten close to, the only one that she would call a friend.

FP hasn’t told her much about Jughead, but she knows a little. He’s her age, and he grew up mostly with his mother in Toledo. He lead a chapter of the Serpents there, and he was a writer. One of FP’s biggest regrets, one he’s told Betty time and time again, is that it took him so long to get sober. That he wasn’t really able to raise Jughead.

Betty could tell that Jughead wasn’t comfortable around her, that he didn’t trust her. That he was only here reluctantly, so whatever it was that brought him here, it must be serious.

“How is FP?” Betty asks as she pours the water in the french press and sets a four minute timer.

“He’s the reason I’m here actually.”

“Oh?”

“He’s missing.”

“What?” Betty tries to remember the last time she saw FP. It takes her a minute, but then she remembers he dropped by last Friday to give her a tip about a Raub-Kondor that was spotted in Beaverton. He’d stayed for supper. 

“He went missing on Monday. He and Sweet Pea were on a run to Seattle, they made it there, but they never made it back. They are both missing.” Jughead looks around nervously, not quite meeting her eyes. Betty gets it. FP has become comfortable with her, but most of the Serpents have not. She is a hunter, bred and trained.

“Fuck.” Betty says and Jughead quirks one eyebrow just the way FP does. 

“That’s when I came out from Toledo. Fangs called me and we searched the whole route. We found a trace of their scent at a rest stop outside of Vancouver, WA, then nothing.”

“That’s not good.” Betty says. Beep, Beep, Beep, the timer goes and Betty pushes the coffee down in the french press and then pours it into two blue mugs. 

“We cased the area but there was no signs that anything happened there”. Jughead says accepting the cup of coffee from her with both hands. 

Betty adds a tablespoon of sugar to her coffee. “I can pull the CCTV footage at work tomorrow. All the rest stops have cameras. They are outside of our jurisdiction technically, but I know a guy.” A guy who will inevitably try and trade the favor for a date, but Betty’s worked around that before, she will again.

“You can give me the footage?” Jughead asks, suspiciously. Betty gets it. Most Grimm’s aren't like her. Most would rather kill a Wesen than help one, even if that Wesen wasn’t doing anything wrong. 

FP and she had an unusual friendship. There was no other Wesen she hung out. Frankly Jughead was brave just being in her kitchen, drinking her coffee. He might be able to become a vicious hybrid wolf, but she had killed dozens of his kind before, and she would again. Out of the two of them in the kitchen she undoubtedly had the higher body count.

“I’ll review it myself first, but if you want a copy I can give you one when we go to the rest stop.”

Jughead looks shocked “We’re going to the rest stop?” 

Betty finishes her coffee “Yes. At 5PM, after I get off work. I want to go over the crime scene with you. We should have the footage by then, so we should know more about the details of whatever took place.”

“OK. Fangs told me you’d help, but…” Jughead shrugged. 

“I consider your father to be a friend. He’s helped me.” Betty says, although honestly she’s searched for wesen that aren't friends before. She tries her best.

“So my father’s a snitch?” Jughead snarls a little when he says it, and Betty can feel the wolf in him, the creature shifting inside the man. Her body tenses instinctively. 

“No, I mean I try not to interfere unless a Wesen dies or commits a major crime. I don’t hunt without reason. Your father tells me if a Wesen is being harmed by another Wesen and he needs help.”

“I get that you like and know my father. But why help Wesen in general?” Jughead asks. She understands his confusion. The four other Grimm’s she knew didn’t get it at all. Veronica Lodge, Portland’s backup Grimm didn’t even get it, but she did defer to Betty. 

“Because everything works better if law abiding Wesen are supported.” Betty says. 

Jughead nods. He seems to accept this. They exchange numbers, then he leaves. Betty only has enough time to take a shower and eat breakfast before she heads into work. 

Just like every morning her partner, Archie Andrews meets her at her desk with a cup of coffee, one tablespoon of sugar, just like she likes it. She settles in for a long hard day of police work, followed by Grimm work. The first thing she does is put in a request for the CCTV footage. 

She can’t stop thinking about FP, she wants him to be ok. Not just for his friendship, but for the last four years Portland’s Wesen situation has been stable in large part due to FP and the Serpents involvement. 

Betty thinks about Jughead too. He’s attractive, and he’s clearly smart (he’s scared of her after all). He seems grounded in a way she’s not use to. She hopes that with Jughead’s help she can find FP.

* * *

Jughead exhales smoke and stubs out his cigarette. He’s been waiting for Betty at the rest stop for 15 minutes now. She’s coming straight from work so he should have expected delays. He looks out into the forest. He can smell his father here still, even after the early morning rains. 

He wants Betty to get here, but he’s also nervous. Fangs, his dad’s right hand man had insisted that Betty was to be trusted, and his father had never said anything that wasn’t a compliment about her. Still when he was growing up his mom had always talked about Grimms like they were the monsters under the bed. 

Yesterday Betty had seemed so normal. So close to being human. She was beautiful except for those eyes. No one could see her eyes the way he’d seen them for that split second, infinitely black, and doubt her toughness, the threat she posed.

A beat up Jeep pulls in next to his bike and Betty gets out. She is wearing a blue t-shirt and tight jeans. Jughead has to remind himself not to think about her as a women, she’s a Grimm. She might as well be an alien, hiding under the same skin that he hid his true self.

She has an iPad in her hands. At first he wonders what this means, and then he realizes that she must have found something on the CCTV footage.

“What did you find?” Jughead asks.

“We should probably watch it in the Jeep.” Betty says, her expression serious and focused. Jughead looks around. No one is around them. But the sun is out, a rare thing in Portland, so it would be hard to see the screen.

Betty gets into the passenger seats in the back of the jeep and Jughead gets in behind her.

Their bodies have to be close if they’re both going to watch it, and Jughead feels nervous about that. He wishes she smelt revolting and dangerous instead of soft and grapefruit-ey. She hands him the ipad before he forces himself to scoot towards her.

“I’ve already seen the footage.” She says with a shrug. “You haven’t. There is footage from another camera too, showing he and Sweet Pea parking the bikes, but it didn’t have any hints at what was about to happen. The footage from this camera was much more helpful.”

She presses play and he watches as his dad enters the screen. He hadn’t seen his dad in person in almost two years, and even on the fuzzy recording his dad looks older and slower. 

Sweet Pea is with him, and when his dad turns towards Sweet Pea, smiling big. Jughead knows, even though there is no audio that FP is making a joke. Sweet Pea starts to laugh. Then out of the dark behind FP comes a woged Jägerbar, a Wesen that looks a lot like a bear when transformed. Jughead has never seen a Jägerbar in person, but they have a reputation for strength and swiftness.

Another Jägerbar shows up on the screen behind Sweet Pea. Both are carrying what looks like baseball bats. FP and Sweet Pea don’t notice the Jägerbars till a baseball bat connects with FP’s skull. The hit looks hard, but not lethal to a blutbad. Still Jughead can’t help but wince. 

Sweet Pea tries to swing into action but the Jägerbar behind him bats him in the knees and then when he’s down, knocks him out. The Jägerbar’s are last seen dragging the Blutbad’s off screen. 

Betty stops the video. Only then does Jughead exhale. Technically this is good news. His dad is, or rather was alive, when he left the rest area, which is a start. But it doesn’t feel like good news. 

“There is no other footage of the Jägerbar’s after that.” Betty says, softly. “I called Fang’s on the way over and he says the Serpents had a few run-ins recently with a group of Jägerbar’s that live over on NE Euclid Ave. He even has an address. I think we need to stake it out.”

“Tonight?” Jughead says. 

“I think we have to.” Betty rubs her eyes when she says this. She looks exhausted. Only then does Jughead think about how long she’s been up. He’s slept all day.

“Why not wait till tomorrow night?” Jughead says, offering her a way out. She shakes her head. “But you got up so early this morning. You need to sleep sometime.” 

“As long as I get four hours sleep, i’ll be fine.” Betty says. “I might get you to take first watch.”

“Is that one of the perks of being a Grimm, being able to live on four hours of sleep?”

She laughs. “No, just the side effect of having two jobs.”

“Can we get food first? Jughead asks. He’s starving. She nods in agreement and they quickly figure out the closest Burgerville location and pick up take out. 

As Betty warned him, she gets Jughead to take first shift. She naps in the back seat as soon as her burger is done. Jughead is full now, though he knows that won’t be for long. He should have ordered burgers for later. 

It’s boring being on stakeout. He has to really focus on the house, two doors down and across the street. He can’t be distracted by his cell phone or the music playing low on the radio, because if he did, he could miss something crucial.

As it was he’s been staring at a boring house for over two hours. He hasn’t seen anyone enter or exit. The only sign of life is a marmalade cat that goes in and out through a cracked window.

Jughead feels uncomfortable due to the presence of Betty in the backseat. She looks so soft and cozy back there, snuggled on her side. An old coat pulled over her. She had been silent throughout dinner. It was like she could sense how nervous he was. He can tell she’s not nervous. 

Jughead focuses again on the house. It’s light blue with peeling paint. It’s two floors. There are no cars in front so whoever is there is probably out.

“See anything?” Betty asks groggily, sitting up.

“Nothing but a cat. Aren't you supposed to sleep another two hours?” He asks.

“I’ve got enough rest for now.” Betty says, as she pushes her way into the front seat through the middle. “I can tell even from here that the house doesn’t have a basement so they can’t be keeping your dad and Sweet Pea there. If there anywhere I bet there on the second floor.”

“Are you planning an invasion?” Jughead asks. 

“No. I’m too much of a cop to do that without any evidence to support us.” Betty says with a shrug. “I want to see them first.”

Jughead nods. He’s never met Toledo’s Grimm but he does know a lot about him. He’s an invade first kind of guy. 

“Fangs said you and my dad have been friends for five years now.” Jughead says. She hasn’t said much about FP but the fact that she’s willing to sacrifice sleep, and drop almost everything for him, sends a pretty clear message.

Betty nods. “Yes. I met him through another Serpent. The trailer park was being vandalized and some Blutbad kids were being attacked. I was able to intervene and the situation didn’t escalate. We became friends in the process.”

“FP told me once you were the only police officer he trusted.”

“Did he say that before or after I arrested him?” Betty asks with a grin.

“Wait, you arrested him?”

“I had too. My partner Archie Andrews caught him selling white powder out on Alberta.”

Jughead laughs. 

“What was the white powder?” 

“Ground human gallbladder.” Betty smiles at the memory. “I had to lose the evidence, so FP was free to go. Archie almost caught me destroying the evidence, so it was a near disaster, but it ended well.”

“He never even mentioned that to me.” Jughead shakes his head. “We’re not close. He’s probably told you that much.”

“He did.” Betty says focusing on the house. Jughead’s mother had made the choice for Jughead when he was five. FP would visit occasionally, but it was never for long. His mother made things awkward for FP when he did visit, and once Jughead lived in his own apartment too much time had passed. 

“I always wanted to have a relationship with him though.” Jughead says. He wants to be clear about that. “If we find him, I hope i’ll have a shot at that.” Betty nods.

“I think we will find him alive. If they had wanted to kill him, I think they would have done it at the rest stop.”

“So why kidnap him?” Jughead asks.

“Honestly?” Betty asks, arching one eyebrow. Jughead nods. “I think this is a trap for me.”

“Why?” Jughead is a little shocked by this. 

“FP’s friendship with me is not exactly a secret, locally. A few months ago I had to kill three Jägerbars. I didn’t want to. But they had killed a whole family of ice-beavers and it was the only option. Since then various members of the Jägerbar community have made it very clear how unhappy they were about it. It’s all been a bit of a shitshow.” 

Jughead laughs. He appreciates her bluntness. He’s never met anyone like her. He keeps forcing himself to remember that that is a good thing. 

This is dangerous. What she just told him was one small reason she was nothing but bad news for someone like him. She didn’t even seem scared. He might be the head of the Toledo chapter of The Serpent's, but most of that just involved making sure everyone was safe and well taken care of, and occasionally transporting and dealing Wesen drugs. He’d been in fights of course, who in his position had not, but he was hardly an expert.

Betty’s staring across the street at the house. Jughead follows her line of sight and he sees a car pull up across the street and two people get out. There about the same height and build as the Jägerbar’s caught on the security footage, but that’s not really definitive.

“I recognize the man on the left. His name is Tom Green. He is one of Jägerbar leaders.” Betty says. 

“So you think this is a trap? We could come back with the other Portland Serpents.” Jughead watchess as the two men entered the house.

“We don’t do anything tonight. Do you think a team of Serpents could keep an eye on the house till tomorrow night? They would need a car, motorbikes wouldn’t do. I feel like we will know more what to do tomorrow. Or at least learn something. If they’ve already had your dad and Sweat Pea for a while I don’t think another couple of days will change things.”

“Probably.” Jughead says. He hates the idea that his father might be right there in that house across the street and they could save him right now if they didn’t delay. 

Betty must pick up on what he’s thinking because she says. “My only worry is that running into that house ready to fight could ruin our chances of finding him if he is elsewhere. Where as a couple of days of surveillance, maybe not even that many, should make it clear where they’re keeping him.”

“Ok.” Jughead says. 

“We will back here tomorrow night, if no one sees anything more by then.” Betty says. Jughead makes the call to the Serpents. They wait for them to show up to take their place before taking off. Betty drops Jughead off at his dad’s trailer. 

That night he dreams of Betty. Nothing scandalous or dramatic. In the dream they are walking through a lush green woods. The dream is so calming that it is only at the end of it, just as they reach the summit of the mountain, does he realize that they are holding hands. 

The whole next day he has a hard time shaking the dream. It feels like the ghost of her is with him while he sits and drinks bad coffee, It puts him on edge. 

The strange thing is he’s never really had these sort of feelings for anyone before. Usually he’s friends with someone for a while, or they pursue him in a very obvious way, before he feels anything at all. He’s never really been great at growing something physical into something more. 

Yet in that dream he could feel that more. It just happened to be with the worst possible person. For a Blutbad to date a different type of Wesen was a minor scandal. For s Wesen to date a human was a major scandal. For a Wesen to date a Grimm, well that was just unheard of. 

In the afternoon Jughead changed into his wolf form and went for a run in the woods, ate a rabbit, and by the time Betty picked him up at his trailer he generally felt much better. More like himself. 

Betty’s hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she was wearing an all black running outfit. It fit her well and Jughead must have stared at her a minute too long because she said “Oh, this is just in case we have to do some breaking and entering.”

Jughead nods, even though that wasn’t what was occupying his mind at all. “You’re the cop.” 

There was no real updates from The Serpents who had been taking shifts all day. No one had gone in or out. Betty thought that was a good indicator that FP and Sweet Pea were in there. 

Betty bought snacks and was better rested. She played music on the way to the stake out. All old Bruce Springsteen songs. The musical choice surprised Jughead so much he finally asked about it.

“It’s good music.” She says as if it is a simple fact. Then she adds “and it reminds me of my mom. She passed away around this time of year. Listening to it reminds me of her.”

“You were close?” Jughead asks. 

“Not always.” She says. “But in the end.”

Jughead is curious, but Betty changes the topic when they pull up in front of the house, and he suspects that this is a deliberate move on her part.

The first hour passes quickly, filled mostly with the consumption of snacks. The second hour passes slowly. They are both alert and focused on watching the house. 

By the third hour Jughead is feeling restless, the wolf in him is not used to being cooped up for so long. Betty too seems restless. “Do you want to play three questions?” Betty asks.

“Don’t you mean twenty questions?” Jughead asks. 

Betty shakes her head and smiles. “Twenty questions is always too many. Three questions forces you to think, to throw out any filler questions you might have and replace them with meaningful ones.“

“OK.” Jughead says. He’s a little more nervous now. He’s more keen on answering filler questions. But on the other hand, the idea of asking Betty meaningful questions appeal to him. He has a lot of questions about her. He’s never met anyone like her, and he feels like she’s got him in a constant state of confusion. Maybe this will help. “You go first.”

“Fine.” Betty pauses for a minute, refocusing her attention on the house in front of her, still no sign of activity. “Do you like being a Blutbad?” 

Jughead’s shocked by the frankness of the question. He’s never really thought of it before. At least not as an adult. As a kid he wished a lot to not be one but at this point it was moot.

“I mean I don’t know what it’s like to not be one. But I think so. I mean it makes some parts of my life harder, controlling urges, etc..” Betty nods, there is no need for him to go into the details of bloodlust with a Grimm. “But other parts are so much better. My pack in Toledo is tight knit and great. I love to really run as a wolf. It’s the best feeling in the world.”

He looks out at the house across the street and a family with a baby in a stroller passes. “I also look at humans sometimes and think about just how much of the world they are missing out of. How sad I would be to be one of them. Thinking I know everything, while missing a whole layer of existence.”

He thinks about from time to time. How shocked his mailman would be to see Jughead as wolf, for example. 

Betty smiles. “I think about it a lot. How most of the world is oblivious to what is actually going on. I grew up knowing I was a Grimm, but Veronica, Portland’s other Grimm came into her powers late, with no one to really guide her, and for her it was a much harder transition. Even though she can see what I can see, she spent the first six months calling me crazy.”

Jughead laughs. He knows he shouldn’t feel like this around her, of all people (or not people) but it’s not something he can change, so he might as well ask the question he really wants to ask. “Do you have a partner?”

“Of course. I’m a detective. All detectives have partners.”

Jughead laughs. “No, I mean a romantic partner. I was trying not to make gender assumptions.”

“Fair enough. No, I do not.” 

Jughead immediately wants to ask why not, but it’s not his turn anymore.

“Are you nervous about finding FP?” Betty says. The fact that she’s asking the question at all makes it clear that FP has told her about the tenuous nature of their relationship. But he can’t get mad at FP for that. After all Betty’s FP’s friend, yet another complicated layer.

“A little. The last time we talked, things didn't go well. I know he’s sober now, that he’s in control, but it’s still hard to see him through all the history between us.”

“I get it.” Betty says in a way that makes it clear he’s not obligated to say more.

“Why are you single?” Jughead asks.

Betty shrugs as if to say isn’t it obvious, although it isn’t at all to him. Then she elaborates. “For one thing I’m busy all the damn time. I work fulltime as a cop, I have lots of Grimm. work So even if I was interested in someone it would be hard to pull it off.”

Jughead nods and Betty continues. “But even if I had more free time. I’m a Grimm. I wouldn’t want to drag a human into the shit I deal with, Wesen see me and are either terrified or overwhelmed with anger. Other Grimm are few and far between and I’ve never been attracted to any that i’ve met.” 

“So in other words, it’s a pretty slim playing field.”

“I would describe it as barren.” Betty shakes her head, her focus still on the house across the street. “What about you?”

“I don’t even have a work partner.” Jughead shrugs. “I’ve had relationships, just never the desire to make them serious.”

“Ah. Commitment issues.”

Jughead would have agreed with that statement before the dream, but now, not so much. “Maybe, maybe more the lack of the right person.”

“Shit.” Betty says, and at first Jughead thinks she’s responding to him, but then he realizes that is not it at all. A Sprinter van has pulled up in front of the Jägerbar’s house. Three burly guys exit the van and climb the stairs to the house.

“What do you think is going on?” Jughead asks.

“I think they are going to move FP and Sweet Pea.” Betty says, her whole body tenses. “I think we’re going to have to intercept now.”

“Why don’t we call back up?” Jughead’s trusts himself in a fight but Jägerbar’s are a worthy foe. He understands that Betty’s a Grimm but these are still not odds that he likes.

“They won’t be fast enough.” 

“Why not follow them to their next location?” Jughead says. 

“We could lose them in the process.” 

After that there is no point in arguing because the Jägerbar’s emerge from the house carrying a hooded man. Two of the Jägerbar’s walk in front, with two Jägerbar’s carrying the bound and hooded man (FP? Sweet Pea? There is no way of knowing - Jughead just hopes that whoever it is, is still alive) behind. In the rear there is a Jägerbar. Or rather Jughead is assuming they’re all Jägerbar’s. None of them are woged, so he can’t see their true faces. Just like no one glancing at Jughead right now would see him as Blutbad

It’s dark out but they are hardly being discreet. Maybe a neighbor will call a cop? Jughead hopes, not that a gun would be much use against a Jägerbar. Besides that could put Betty in a pinch. He can’t think about it further because Betty is out of the car and sprinting across the road. 

Jughead follows, although not nearly as fast. Betty bends down just as she reaches the sidewalk and picks up a branch, about the size of a golf club that had been abandoned there. At that moment the two men in the front spot her. One pulls a gun, the other a knife.

Both woge, and even though Jughead is expecting it, he can’t help but respond instinctually, his body transforming into its wolf form as Betty knocks out the Jägerbar closest to her with the branch, the other Jägerbar fires his gun, three times, but either his aim is awful or she’s good at dodging bullets.

Betty’s abandoned the branch and she punches the Jägerbar in the center of the face. He hits the sidewalk hard and does not get him. Jughead’s reaches the frey himself now. The Jägerbar that is carrying the hooded man drop him and the bound starts wriggling. Jughead feels relief at the sight but only for a second. Now there is another gun drawn and pointed at him.

That Jägerbar never gets a chance to fire it. Betty slams into the side of the Jägerbar’s body and when he’s on the ground she knocks him out. Jughead leaps in full wolf into the three Jägerbar’s still standing. All three hit the ground and then scramble up, claws out. 

He knocks the one closest to him to the ground, with a snarl. Jughead doesn’t use his teeth though. He doesn’t want blood lust to enter into this. He can’t have that. Still the Jägerbar passes out, his body going limp beneath Jughead’s claws.

A Jägerbar crashes into Jughead’s side, a claw swiping into Jughead’s leg. Jughead hits the ground, but all four of his limbs connect with the ground correctly, he is stable, and the Jägerbar has slid onto his side. Jughead rears up, grabs at the Jägerbar with his claws, hoists him up and slams him into the sidewalk. 

Then he looks for Betty. She’s standing beside an unconscious Jägerbar. Her pants are ripped, her shirt blood stained, her face the picture of concentration. All of the Jägerbar’s are taken out, and the hooded figure is wriggling on the ground in front of them. Betty steps forward, flings off the hood and reveals FP.

His mouth is gagged and she loosens it. “Betty” he says, the name imbued with warmth and gratitude. Betty smiles as she unties his hands and his feet. 

FP stands up stiffly, only then does he notice Jughead who is wogeing back to his human form.

“Jughead, you came!” FP’s voice is tinged with surprise but a huge smile covers his face and he wraps Jughead in a hug.

“Of course. Where’s Sweet Pea?”

FP’s smile vanishes. “They killed him the first night. They decided they only needed one of us for bait.”

“I’m sorry.” Betty says. “He was a good man.” FP nods. Jughead falls silent. He’s never met Sweet Pea, but he feels the loss of the people around him.

“I’m just so glad you found me.” FP says. 

* * *

Jughead’s plan was always to find FP, free him if possible, and then to return to Toledo, to the Serpents he’d left there. 

He had fulfilled the first two steps of his plan and now he was stalled on step three. He was going on night five sleeping on FP’s uncomfortable pull out sofa. 

The first two nights he had stayed to connect with his dad and he had, their relationship now was better than it had been in Jughead’s memory. His father when sober was a funny, charming man. 

Jughead had stayed another two days after that to get a better feel for Portland but he was running out of excuses.Jughead hadn’t been brave enough to see Betty after the fight, even though he knew his father had.

Jughead hadn’t even really brought up Betty with FP. It felt too charged on his end. Particularly because every night he dreamed of her. 

Every dream was domestic, simple. One involved cooking dinner. Another picking out a Christmas tree. Nothing was erotic about them. The most they exchanged in the dreams was a kiss. But the peace and joy he felt within the dreams was like nothing he’d experienced in his waking life.

On the sixth day, the day he had planned to get back on his motorcycle and return to Toldo, he woke from a dream of them swimming in the ocean together, to a knock on the door of the trailer. He checks the time. It’s still 6PM. Blutbads are nocturnal, so he’s sure the whole trailer park is still sleeping around him. He wonders who it could possibly be.

He rolls out of the bed, pulls on yesterday’s jeans and opens the door. Betty stands at the foot of the stairs wearing a warm looking green sweater and a pair of jeans. 

For the first time since he met her she looked nervous. “Are you here for FP?” He asks. Even though he already knows that’s not it. She shakes her head and he bounds down the trailer stairs. 

He can’t help it. He kisses her right there, he presses his chapped lips to hers. Their noses brush. He feels a heat build between them. A kiss follows a kiss follows a kiss. 

Betty pulls away first. She seems happy, but there’s something else there, a tension.

“I want you.” He says. He surprises himself with his directness, but to say anything else would be misleading. He feels his body long for her, in a way it never has for others before. As if the animal in him knows that she’s his mate on a whole separate level from the human.

“I don’t hook up.” And he knows now why there was tension in her expression earlier. 

“Good. Because I want a whole hell of a lot more than that.” Jughead says and this time when they kiss it’s less soft, there is more teeth, more edge. He can feel the muscle of her press against the muscle of him. 

He should be scared of her, but he’s not. He may not have faith in the traditional sense but those dreams, the ones that find him every night - he knows they’re worth believing in. He knows he can trust in the peace he feels there. He knows he can trust her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I very much appreciate comments! I am always grateful. The plan is to have two follow up stories set in the same universe. 
> 
> Also I'm generally not a big fan of dreams in stories but I ended up married in part because of one, so I couldn't help myself!
> 
> P.S. There is a reason she's going by Smith!


End file.
